Moog Music Issues Objection To North Carolina Law That Sanctions Discrimination Against LGBT Community

Moog Music today posted a statement on their site, objecting to North Carolina HB2 (pdf), a new law that overrides local laws banning discrimination against members of the LGBT community; and limiting anti-discrimination law to ‘biological sex’, eliminating protection for transgender people:

Friends of Moog Music,

North Carolina has been home to Moog since 1978. We treasure the community we live and work in, however we strongly object to House Bill 2, which sanctions discrimination against members of our family.

As an employee-owned company, we are a group of wonderfully diverse individuals who share a passion for designing inspirational tools. Bob Moog believed, as do we, that the most beautiful and innovative solutions evolve from harnessing the collective power of divergent ideas and perspectives. Exclusion limits our path to progress and denies our living connection to each other.

The Moog factory and Moogfest are, and always will be, safe and inclusive spaces for the LGBTQ community and their allies.

Synthesize Love,

Moog

Moogfest also posted a statement on the new law:

To our global community of artists, technologists, and future-thinkers.

We are stunned by the news this week, and we invite you to join us in opposing regressive, unjust discrimination of all kinds.

House Bill 2, the Public Facilities Privacy & Security Act, passed on Wednesday by North Carolina’s legislature and signed into law by the governor, eliminates anti-discrimination protections for all lesbians, gays and bisexuals and bars transgender people from using bathrooms that do not match the gender they were born with.

Moogfest is proud of its home in Durham, its heritage in Asheville, and our friends throughout the state of North Carolina. But we adamantly oppose this law, and any laws that enable or encourage exclusion and bigotry.

Moogfest is dedicated to the legacy of Bob Moog, an engineer who partnered with artists to create new technological tools for creative expression. It was Bob’s lifelong belief that true innovation comes through collaboration, not exclusion. Moogfest offers an inclusive environment where all people come together to explore big ideas for the future. We value diversity, self-expression and experimentation above all else. This discriminatory law not only runs counter to the basic principles of equality, fairness, and justice – it is a direct affront to our principled mission.

We will have spaces dedicated to education and dialogue around these issues and we will take every step possible to ensure that Moogfest remains a safe and welcoming space for all festival-goers, especially the many LGBTQ artists and speakers joining us this year.

We invite all fans of Moogfest to join us. We are standing our ground in North Carolina, and will use every opportunity to protest this law – on the stage, in the streets, and on social media.

I don’t know why this is still a thing in America. We’ve had equal rights for gays eg; gay marriage for a while in Canada, and the sky hasn’t fallen. We still have a ways to go I’m sure, but it’s kind of not a big deal at least in the larger cities.

Just throwing this out there for those who may not have visited our fine state: we are not all bigots. Honest. Most true North Carolinians are for equal rights and diversity. We do have narrow-minded people, but this is an embarrassment for most of us.

thats simplistic, and assumes everyone in the world adheres to the same physical and cognitive binary positions – which they don’t. Which loo should be used by people who have ambiguous physical traits (which is far, far more people than you would think)? What about people that don’t mentally feel they fit into a male or female category, or feel they fit into a category different that their physical appearance? Do you have they right to tell people who they are? Do I? Why should someone who has no doubt been emotionally abused by society their whole be forced to abandon the one ‘private’ public space in which they feel comfortable? The reality is that it is not a case of ‘Dudes’ using a female bathroom, but of non-cisgendered people not wanting to be discriminated against. Being a cisgendered man or woman makes it incredibly difficult to understand that, but that does mean they should have less rights than you or I.

Imagine your sister or daughter was born with a mutation which gives her a big lump on your upper thigh, and someone says “well that means she’s a man, so she’ll have to use the men’s toilets”. She grows up feeling embarrassed and uncomfortable having to go to the men’s and people shouting rude things at her saying she’s a freak. Then one day scientists and lawmakers investigate and realise she’s actually a woman so she shouldn’t have to use the men’s toilets any more, and you and she are really happy people finally treat her like a woman so she can get on with her life. Wouldn’t it be wonderful?

But then the local redneck sheriff declares “I know better!”. So now your sister (or daughter) has to go back to using the men’s toilets and being taunted wherever she goes.

How would you feel? Because this is what’s just happened except that instead of the local redneck sheriff it’s the state of North Carolina.

Joel it’s really not that simple. I’d have no problem with it, it feels that you comment about would you be happy if your daughters were in a toilet with a transgender person, to be perfectly honest I wouldn’t care because I don’t assume that them previously being of another gender really puts our children at risk or makes anyone at risk in some way. The bigger issue here is that who has the right to say they can’t, in my opinion no one, this is a big step backwards and it would sadden me to live in such a community where this was permitted. I applaud Moog and anyone else in the state who opposes this horrible law!!

It’s not that simple. Gender happens inside your head. So ding-a-ling = male is only half the truth 😉
Suicide rates go up if transgenders are forced to go the public loo that matches their physical gender.

In many places there are unisex loos, it’s about privacy, being decent, and not showing your thing to people who may not perefer seeing it at the moment, waiting for the others to leave the place, etc. If one gets suicidal thoughts only because of geting in to a place dedicated to another gender (geting in to there, not exposing to naked body parts) he/she might need professional help. And kindly consider that straight ones may claim that they tend to be suicidal when they are forced to exposed opposite sex’s bodies.

It’s about thinking your self more privilaged just because you feel you are different, and has a right to dive into any loo you prefer at that moment.

As I mentioned, I have no idea about what that law exactly dictates and no intention to learn more about it (at least right now). I made some comments just because others shared their ideas about rest room ethics.

I, EVEN, got fed up with ‘straight’ people who think they deserve special care because they have certain gender spesific body extentions like supposedly beautiful breasts or its male counterparts.

IMHO a human being should be decent and not intrusive, along with being indifferent about gender thing as much as possible.

I think that gender issuse is a bit of exaggerated, gender gender… so what, to quote Dirty Harry, every one has one. Let’s be human, make more durable knobs etc : ))

PS: As you may have noticed Englich : ) is not my native language. And my native language has no words as he or she. And similarly, please kindly don’t think that I advocate or disregard a certain gender/transgender etc.

By the way Max, I first thought you were serious about your first comment about that dramatic “suicide” thing, and then I thought oh he was just sarcastic, when you said ” I would like my daughter to go to the same loo with transgenders “. Should be that language barrier thingy hehe.

And I would have to disagree with you Max. Providing equal consideration to “state of mind” and legal protection under the law is a dangerous precedent. Now we are saying that someone state mind precedes their anatomical makeup.

Furthermore the concept of absolute inclusion will always mean that someone’s beliefs or standards will be excluded, since we’re asking others to forgo their beliefs by accepting another’s.

And “rights” and “access” are separate entities. I believe everyone has a “rightl to participate in the decision making process, by voting for instance. And conversely I believe all people should have access to public facilities and a right to use them, yet not as they deem fit by merely a state of mind that informs their condition! Now if these unisex loos, this would not be a debate.

No matter how qualified I may “feel” I am as a software engineer, no matter how my state of mind informs me to be qualified to work at Lucerne, I’m probably not. That is the reality. And if lack the necessary anatomical makeup to use a designated loo, they I shouldn’t. And I am in support of LGBT rights, yet some discernment and common sense are in order here. And when I read comments that state who are we to say” are not allowed to make any judgement or discern any propriety? Would allowing equal access be a judgement in and of itself for some ans against others?

Unless the anatomical makeup changes, the state of mind is not a qualification. And unless I obtain my Masters in Electrical Engineering, my state of mind will not be enough to work at Lucerne most likely.

You’re doing what many people do – and apparently these lawmakers have done – and simplified gender identify to a binary penis/no penis.

That’s not something that God or nature did.

But, not only does this law legalize bigotry, not only is it anti LGBT, not only does it usurp the will of the people of cities that have created anti-discrimination laws, not only does this make national companies want to pull their business out of the state – but politicians are doing it to make political points by fixing a non-existent problem, and by doing so, it’s creating a bunch of legal conundrums.

Legal conundrums like these. What does ‘biological sex’ mean? Is that based on your DNA? Some people have both in their DNA. Is it based on what somebody thinks of your looks? That’s subjective. Is it based on your organs? Anyone that knows anything about biology knows that that’s not reliable.

And you are over complicating a matter that is not as complex and variable driven as you wish to make it.

Let me be clear, the Gov. of NC is a bigot and as corrupt as they come. And I’m not American however I’m familiar enough with Mccrory to know that he is in essence a moron like Trump, a con man that is a cesspool of ethical deviance. That said I concur with others that this is more legislation of a seemingly non existent problem. That said I cannot agree with you less in allowing state of mind to dictate reality. You know who else stated his state of mind informed him of his reality? D. Trump Who said during a trial that his wealth is determined by how he feels on a particular day. That is factual and actually more disturbing than this issue yet you understand my point. and for some to call others bigots for simply disagreeing on principle, that is the very essence of closed mindedness and bigotry.

Sadly we (should I confidently say many?) are not interested about your genitalia, and please don’t try make your body part an important issue for the others. Anyone who think they’re being humiliated or alike for whatever reason has a right for calling the authorities. That right should be the same for everyone.

Your misunderstanding. It’s not a state of mind – its a way of being, the nature of your self construct. As an extreme example – lets assume your a guy. You wake up one morning and your bits are missing – you were in an accident, attacked by a crazy lover, cursed by a witch, whatever. Should you now use the ladies? “No!”, you say, “I know I am a man”. “But you haven’t got the right bits! Your being a man is all in your head – it’s just a state of mind!”.
Life is obviously not the extreme. However, both biologically and mentally, there is simply not a complete binary opposition between males and females. Many people sit neatly – physically or mentally – on one side of that binary. Equally, many people don’t. To feel you are a different sex than your body might suggest, is not a state of mind, a fad, a choice. Its the very basis of who you are. To presume the body is right and the mind is wrong, is pure folly. The body and mind work together, as has been scientifically proven many times.

Lastly, ‘equal’ rights is always really a case of distributing rights evenly – some rights are always removed when new rights are given – your right to be free tops my right to own a slave. They can’t both exist. The trouble with bills like this is that they seek to regress the social system. Yes, the rights of men and women to have gender-specific spaces are compromised by the existent of trans or non-cisgendered people. However, trans and cis-gendered people are a reality, whereas the right to have a bathroom just for you, is not. We made up the idea of gender-specific spaces – the don’t exist in nature. Equally, we made up the idea of strict binary gender concepts – the existence of Hermaphrodites in nature proves this.

“However, trans and cis-gendered people are a reality, whereas the right to have a bathroom just for you, is not. We made up the idea of gender-specific spaces – the don’t exist in nature. Equally, we made up the idea of strict binary gender concepts – the existence of Hermaphrodites in nature proves this.”

We made as humans made up a lot of concepts that have no equivalent in nature.
culture for example. 😉
So why shouldn’t we create gender specific places?
You see, I don’t need “nature” to support my argument …

I think a lot of us, myself included, are still trying to “adjust” to this new way of identifying people. It’s not necessarily that we need labels to be able to discriminate or put people into categories but more so that we can join the conversation on an intellectual level without being see as ignorant or a bigot. It is a complex issue for some and I think a lot of that is simply because they don’t understand that not all people fall into one, two or even 10 categories. It’s up to all of us who support personal freedom to at least attempt to educate them.

In no way am I saying that ignorance excuses bigotry. But we should continue to look for ways to bring as many people together as possible and that takes effort on both sides.

As far as bathrooms go, I’ve always found it unnecessary to even have two types of bathrooms. Stalls should be all the privacy on needs when doing their business. Obviously, in such a place, respect is still necessary but that has nothing to do with sex, gender or religion.

Our society has been slow to progress on these issues, especially here in the southern U.S but most of these reactions are typically fueled by the old guard, desperately trying to cling on to “their” way of life. MOST on the younger people, are more progressive. I’ve seen both sides in North Carolina and in no way would I hold the actions of the bigots against the rest of the fine people of that state.

The knuckle dragging, primitive assumption that people can or should be defined primarily by what’s between their legs, is an absurd reduction of everything else that we are. Posts like yours reveal it for what it is – dubious, pathological and puerile. Well done Moog for taking a stand.

Well looks like that’s exactly what this law will require. As I understand it, a transgender man may be required to use a bathroom that corresponds to the gender on his birth certificate. So if his birth certificate says “female” the dude will be required to use the same loo as your daughter or young sister.

Lets hear it for all Walters and Wendys. What matters of course are people out there, people of any color, make or gender. Most world religions including all monotheistic ones adhere to that. Constitution in my country adheres with that and therefore such a law would not be possible here.

Anyone with heart, spirit and common sense will agree. If we were to apply such a law as rule of thumb in the music (or any art) community, how many beauty and emotion would have been lost to the world.

From what I gather about this law and how it came about, it’s the very least that Moog or any other publicly visible corporation can do to stick up the proverbial middle finger to the people who made this shame happen. Thanks, Moog, for doing the right thing.

Moog shouldn’t get political. I’m voting for Donald Trump but where we all meet is in music. Let the courts figure out the social issues. Moog makes great machines irrespective of political opinions that can be inflammatory. That’s the artists’ job!

Moog should do whatever they want. And if someone is so offended by what they did then they should stop buying their synths. I still buy my art supplies at Hobby Lobby even though they made a firm, public statement that I disagree with. Now if a company made a statement that I vehemently disagreed with then I’d boycott and be glad I know their views. If what Moog has done is something you passionately disagree with, then I’d want to know why this issue gets you riled up so much.

They’ve also figured out, about 1000 different times, that discrimination in all of its forms are illegal. But there’s always some thumper looking to make a political name for themselves pushing BS laws like this through state legislatures. Even if it passes, it will eventually get declared unconstitutional, NC will have burned a jillion bucks it could have used to pay for food or college or roads or small business loans (or synth libraries!) and we’ll do it all over again in some other state soon after.

Any company has the right to get political when the government passes laws that are directly contrary to how the employees and owners feel. What you really mean by “Moog shouldn’t get political” is “Moog shouldn’t take a political stand I disagree with.”

I’m inordinately pleased at how overwhelmingly the synth community is supportive of this in comment sections. Sure, we have a few bigots, but not even close to the number you see on other threads.

For those worried about a “dude in their daughters restroom,” consider that in Japan and many other countries there are fully-nude co-ed communal baths. Imagine that! People of all genders seeing other people of all genders without any fabric in the way! Despite this, the Japanese were able to make the CS-80, the Mono/Poly, the MS-20, the TS-808, the Jupiter 8, and loads of other amazing devices. Maybe we should all get over our sense of impropriety…

Yep. Corporations are people too now, so Moog has every right to say what they think. I love and support them for that.

However. Mioogfest will bring tons of money to North Carolina from outside the state. I am afraid that by going you will be supporting the state much as supporting Moog. That’s a tough one.

Maybe Moog should move the Moogfest out of North Carolina until this gets resolved? Marvel/Disney told the state of Georgia that would not be making anymore movies there if they passed a similar bill. In the end all of these discussions about ideals and rights usually are resolved more by financial considerations than anything else.

Wow, reading the comments on a story like this did not make me want to shoot my self! Go synthtopia!

All that’s gonna happen is transgender men will continue to use the men’s bathroom, and nobody will notice, but a bunch of lawmakers get to feel like big powerful bullies. That’s the truth of it. Good for Moog for not standing with the bullies.

Dylan, New Jersey isnt a sex palace, and neither is my family room. But if you want to discriminate against the LBGT community and their attempt for equal rights, go right ahead. Its a free country (well maybe not).

Saw on IG an image which said that more US Senators have been arrested for inappropriate behavior in public restrooms than any trans* person. Whether that’s true, it’s funny, because too many politicians are hypocrites about “family values”.

Btw, all single occupancy bathrooms should be unisex/”family” restrooms. No sensible reason they shouldn’t be.

I am living in the deep south for more than 15 years and feel the increasing intolerance every day (here in Georgia a “Religious Bill” is repeatedly created for similar purposes (not providing service to gay couples). At the Moogfest 2014 in Asheville I just remember how I got verbally harassed by some homophobe youngsters wearing a T-Shirt showing a anti-gay symbolic. Or remember the disturbance of the workshops by some weird mob. Or hearing a comment sandwich shop that someone would spit on my sandwich. Or verbal threats out of a group like by “putting a blow torch on that guy”. Or getting harassed by some religious groups walking through downtown Asheville. Those bills are designed to propel exactly that kind of harassment and discrimination. As an American citizen I am ashamed of this intolerance but I know that at least there are many Americans who are not like that. I hope that foreign guests/artist are not deterred visiting the concerts.

I get it, you obviously have some issues you support…well goody for you.
Everyone has something they stand up for….but when I come to Synthtopia,
I expect to read articles about MUSIC, INSTRUMENTS, SYNTHESIZERS…etc..
not about LGBT rights…I get enough of that shoved down my throat on a daily basis
from the agendized main stream media….

wow, must be a nice bubble you live in. Sorry, but freedom to be “you” allows that, and you are entitled to your opinion, as the rights that are being addressed here have everything to do with that… No one asked you to click on the link, nor forced you to respond….

“WHAT does LGBT rights have to do with
MUSIC / /INSTRUMENTS / SYNTHESIZERS ? educate me please !”

OK, since you asked…

LGBT and electronic music have a long and rich history, which can initially be traced to the large female/feminist involvement in the early production of the tools used, starting probably with Ada Lovelace who pretty much invented the sequencer, and through to Daphne Oram, who was instrumental in ‘drawn sound’ techniques of synthesis.

As far as LGBT goes, there is the obvious Wendy Carlos connection, who arguably did wonders to popularise synthesiser music within the general public. On a more theoretical/academic level, you might look to someone like Pauline Oliveros, who has made innumerable connects between her use of synthesisers and her being a lesbian. You also might want to take into account the relationship between sonic noise and social noise – both acting as a disturbance within the status quo – something that draws a clear correlation between gay rights / queer theory and synthesis. Tack on John Cage’s 1937 suggestion as to what electronically created sound might offer in terms of freedom from norms, and the use of electronic music to interrogate long-standing classical musical structures and timbral arrangements, and you can begin to see why terms such as ‘fluidity’ are used by both queer theorists and descriptions of synthesis (you will also find many, many academic texts that make this connection).

You might then want to examine the history of popular electronic music within the gay scene, the relationship between ‘electro’ genres and the reclamation of space by such communities, and you will begin to see how electronic music / synthesis has a rich and ongoing heritage with LGBT rights, as such articles like this fit in precisely with the nature of this website. Your welcome to dislike LGBT issues, but to deny that it has a place in a discussion of electronic music is myopic.

Why does a news item on a synth site about Moog, the most important synth company of all time, bother you so, Alien Child?

The way you put some words in all caps and use phrases like ‘the agendized main stream media’ make it sound like you not only don’t want to read about this news on Synthtopia, but you don’t want to read about it anywhere.

Maybe you should leave a list of topics that you don’t want covered on your free news sites so that they can cater to you.

To “LDB” No, your comment is the very definition of bigotry. And you are dead wrong!

There is a difference between intolerance and right of access./equal protection. I personally believe regardless of “lifestyle” differences, everyone should have equal access and protection under the law, that does not mean I have to approve or accept your lifestyle choices so as long my personal beliefs do not infringe on your rights to live them!

I agree. If Moog had been a Mormon, his company had been based out of Salt Lake City, and all this hullabaloo was about Polygamy as a lifestyle, you can BE ASSURED that the LGBQ community wouldnt be stepping up to make sure I can have my 3rd wife, and keep her, too.

Alien Child, it isn’t about fitting into anyone’s thinking, it goes beyond individual processes. It is about equally before thought as a basic right. It doesn’t matter what you think, in fact it is helpful if we show little interest as possible to such thinking, as individual musing on lifestyles gets in the way of equality.

Again, diversity isn’t an optional extra, no little bubbles within that, we don’t get to define how diverse our society is, because it will be as diverse as it is regardless of anything you prefer. If you were the only person in the world, you still wouldn’t get to decide how diverse it is, because you can’t add or subtract from that as an individual.

Then the talk of “tolerance”. You didn’t say “understanding”, but “tolerance”. And that means so much more than anything else you have written. See “tolerance” means that you have a profound dislike for something yet show a willingness toward it regardless of any personal distaste. Most people don’t need to bring themselves to be tolerant towards LGBT people, because they don’t have a irrational dislike towards any people based purely on past limited social conventions. We are actually now a lot bigger than that.

I am far from a tolerant person, hence why I am responding to such bigotry. See your lack of “tolerance” isn’t a problem for LGBT people to deal with, it is a problem that only you can to address yourself; only you can fix that wrong in the world. Yet I wouldn’t expect that, as I don’t expect my tolerance towards bigotry to blow over anytime soon, as we are suppose to be intolerant to racists, bigots and fascists; and that isn’t new.

add Coil and Genesis P. Orridge to people/groups that I would argue have had influence beyond their genre and into the use and development of synthesizers that are far beyond gender norms.

Synthesizer culture has been an outsider culture from the very beginning, with alternate representations of sexuality and gender very important to many of the musical styles tied to it.

Technology does not exist in a vacuum from culture. You can be intolerant in your bubble at home, but if you are I would not suggest going to any synth meet (let alone shows) as you may encounter things that will upset you.

This whole ‘peeping bathroom perv’ thing is a 30 year straw man that just won’t die. No one does this! There’s one of everything in the world so ok, maybe someone does this. Maybe. I’ve never heard of an actual case and it’s frankly hard to imagine straight men who are willing to go out in public wearing women’s clothes just so they can sneak into a women’s bathroom and, once finally inside of pervdom’s ground zero, they’re willing to risk leering over a fucking 7-foot stall for a 2 second peep at the tops of thighs! NO ONE DOES THIS.

mmmmmmmmk, presuming these girl-loving-dress-wearing-bathroom-peepers exist, does anyone really think a law is going to prevent anything? If someone is driven to actually go through all of that, a regressive discriminatory law isn’t going to stop them. This will do nothing to stop pervs while making a whole lot of people feel awful.

It is good that Moog is drawing attention to damaging laws. I just don’t like tags like “LGBTQ community”. And I understand the notion of LGDTQ community, but the setup is self-discriminating. Why not just have a sexuality rights group. Words like “community” create a divide, I wonder what that community is like? What community? The people that live with and among you is everyone’s community, it isn’t divided. It creates a notion of them and us.

But then, for a long time now, I have considered sexuality itself to be a modern myth, a construct of society. Animals undiscriminating screw everything and anything, but once you impose society and a herd morality kicks in, then we start to put people in little boxes, or large voids in this case.

If you are going to accept sexuality as a real construct then it would be fair to state that we have as many sexualities as human beings, as anything else is self-limiting. It isn’t right to have broad sweeping classifications, sexuality purely based on the sexual organs of oneself and ones partner is a base level to be working at.

It is like if someone talks of the wants and needs of the black community. They are exactly the same as the wants and needs of everyone. You can understand why a country like America has race issues if they think the wants and needs of any community are different from their own. These aren’t black issues, or gay issues, these are American social issues – and it would be fair to say much of that is stems from good old fashioned Christian hate groups.

They are inextricably linked and Moog know this. Moog is a family owned business with a sense of morals. And if you think business and politics should be kept separate, you’re right, but that’s America baby!!!

Diversity is the most overused word of 2015. Look it up, it really is. It’s now a very good form of marketing, but is become cliche’ much like recycling. The coolness will wear off. It would be nice if we could just all live and work together, unfortunately people screaming about wanting to be different and proclaim their differences is what really turns off most everyone else.

This total bs. People are different. If that turns you off I can’t help it.
Besides I was on CSDs 20 years ago that were about diversity, so no it’s not that hip new thing, it’s just new to you. 😉
And No it hasn’t lost its appeal. 🙂

If you live in NC, you’ve undoubtedly read reactionary statements issued by organizations that host events or are headquartered in NC. They are all negative. Every single one. These organizations are relatively small, insignificant groups like the NBA, NFL, NCAA, RedHat… The list goes on. Moog, the host of Moogfest, the largest event of its kind in the southeast, has an obligation to address this for its very diverse attendees. It’s not political. Well done.

Reading the comments on music-tech related Synthopia and thinking: God, i’m so glad, that i don’t live in America and not dealing with all this mess, like: str8 vs LGBT vs Who-is-these-people-anyway? and just making music.

Wow, the nastiness really comes out sometimes…so disappointing that the folks who run this site are being personally attacked for reporting on Moog Music’s principled stand on this issue. Why not try and explain the reasoning behind your approval of this bill, the rest of the civilized world would like to know.

True diversity means allowing other people to have views that are not only different than yours, but sometimes directly opposed to your views. Demanding that everyone to embrace your views and beliefs is the very definition of intolerance, and ultimately fascism.

If a community votes for laws and politicians that don’t permit things such as gay marriage, or allowing transgenders to use any restroom they choose, then that is a reflection of that communities collective culture. Whether you agree with or like their culture quite frankly doesn’t matter, if you are honestly about embracing diversity.

I’d love to see the social justice warriors take Muslim communities to task over their absolute zero tolerance for homosexuality and transgenderism. But they won’t because unless their ire is focused on white males, it would be called “discrimination”.

Come on MOOG, use your platform to spread the word about the intolerance within Muslim communities. I dare you.

> Come on MOOG, use your platform to spread the word about the intolerance within Muslim communities.

When Moog becomes interested in outreach to muslim or any other non-western dominant communities, we’ll know right away because they’ll implement decent real time microtonal support using the MTS standard across their product line.

Hi Rajiv, my modulars are all very retunable thank you very much thanks to my own fully microtonal 24 bit MIDI to CV converters I designed and built which have features that no other instrument in the world has or has even contemplated. They support live changes to tunings, multiple simultaneous tunings, arbitrary polyphony, multiple monophonic modes, dynamic modulation, expressive bending of individual notes, harmonic cross modulation, and many other features. Truly I have the most advanced microtonal modular control set up of anyone on the planet bar none. My systems support arbitrary methods of pitch expression far beyond anything imagined or contemplated much less experienced by anyone here.

So your attempt to diss me just gives me a chuckle. And your criticism of me is totally irrelevant and useless. You have failed my friend. Completely and utterly failed.

Now as far as Moog’s support on a small number of instruments, it supports nothing at all I have spoken of above, and is totally inadequate for any serious work, which anyone who knows the slightest bit about the topic would be painfully aware of.

As far as bathrooms go I personally believe I should be able to use any bathroom I wish and laws to the contrary are despotic, intolerant and totalitarian. I also find that western colonialist imperialism is despotic, intolerant and totalitarian, and is the underlying problem with all this. But you don’t find anyone defending real rights here, it’s just the fad of the moment that overlooks the big picture. In my own culture, we have far more than 2 genders and we have recognized for thousands of years that physical gender is not related to identity.

Huge congratulations to Moog for doing the right thing. All the haters and detractors don’t deserve to be be part of this community. It’s your right to live in the dark ages, if you must, but you’re on the wrong side of history, you don’t belong here.

By the way, the NC Republicans also made it illegal with this law to protect vets from discrimination within the state, legalized discrimination based on familial status, made it illegal to sue in state court over any type of discrimination, made it legal for companies to fire you for being gay, and made it illegal for cities to set living wages for workers.

Less shocking is that it’s okay and acceptable to bash Republicans but not the other way around. I don’t have to agree with all Republican policies though, because I don’t. Another reason why we need President Trump!

This seems like more of an issue with Big Government making laws about every slightest thing. Laws regarding those issues shouldn’t exist at all. It should be up to private individuals to decide whether they hate homosexuals, love homosexuals, are homosexual, aren’t homosexual etc.

If Johnny Gaybasher who runs the local Spaz Mart decides one day that he doesn’t want to serve Gaylord Huffington the Third, because old Huffington likes other boys but Johnny doesn’t like boys who like other boys – then they should just come to some sort of private agreement themselves.

If I discovered that the woman at the local corner shop thought that I was a total cun*y mc’ cun*erton with poo nuggets on top, I’d probably stop giving her my business. Similarly, I imagine that once Johnny Gaybasher made his feelings known, then poor old Huffington would patronize some other store instead.

If of course Johnny Gaybasher decided to live up to his name and used violent force to convey his disgust for Huffy’s sort, then it’s fine – there are already laws that cover assault and battery.

Sometimes I think the world just up and done lost its damn mind while I wasn’t looking. Is Johnny guilty of wrongthink or something?

Put emotions aside, and realize that Moog is catering to what they perceive as their demographic. Unfortunately, this is for politics alone and a music company should not get involved in something that should be left for lawmakers to decide. You will not see Korg, Roland, Waldorf or any other company getting involved with politics in their state of residence. This is unfortunate, but as a Trump voter I won’t let this detract from my purchase of a Sub 37. I appreciate the instrument but don’t care for the political aspects, they do not provide added value. Time spent on developing a polyphonic Moog would be better for us all.

The value added in this statement by Moog is that they ‘value’ all types of people. Moog is located in a state where the legislative body wants to make it o.k. to devalue some people if the devaluer doesn’t care for them — a concept offensive to those who agree that all types of people have value.

The point seems, at least to me, to center around Moog wanting to distance themselves from the state’s alarming legislation. It is important for companies to take a stand when issues impact their clientele and, in this case, good name from association with the state they exist in.

This is not just about certain groups who are being marginalized, it’s about not marginalizing people period. Their support does no harm to people who disagree, as several posters have indicated, they don’t have to buy Moog products if they don’t want to — nobody is forcing them either way. If a person feels that they don’t want their young child in the same bathroom with a person who is different in some way, then by all means go somewhere else! It is incumbent on the objector to understand they don’t have to go to a place where they feel uncomfortable, but that does not give them a ‘right’ to exclude people who make them uncomfortable from public spaces.

Bathrooms are a touchy issue for many, some of them reek and are filthy, and I don’t know if there is a definite connection to “ladies” or “gentlemen” with respect to nasty bathroom hygiene (though I have my opinion that one tends to be grosser). Perhaps unisex bathrooms would be more popular if everybody was a mite tidier in their biological exhaust practices.

But as for Moog and politics, I assert that everything is political if it involves taking a stand on an issue — even music.

WotP
(no republicans or democrats were harmed in the making of this post)

How dare the State of Carolina use logic and pragmatism as the guiding principles of their lawmaking practices. Do you mean to tell me that they have Decided who gets to use a gendered bathroom facility based on an objective facet of reality such as biological sex? My word, how utterly preposterous!

It is logical that you look to the sign and then look at something that is not totally subjective like your genitals. But this isn’t about that. This is totally polically motivated near an election. Everyone can see it. But there are hipsters at the Urban Outfitters who just bought their first turntable and an LP saying finally I get to protest something!

I am a transgender person,for much of my life I could not say that which I am. FYI sciences says there will be about 1 in 2000 people born who have to deal with an Intersex or gender identity condition.Its genetics !!.About 1 in 10000 will make themselves visible to wider society as transgendered by seeking and registering themselves as transgendered in order that they may responsibly get medical help.It is known that incidence of suicides in Transgender people is significantly higher than the general population,but significantly lower after a Transition.Many live and sadly die unheard and unrecognised as transgendered-Transgender people just want the right to be allowed to develop as human beings.
I have paid my Taxes, and not burdened my countries health services resources,I paid for my medical treatment…Treat others as you would wish to be treated yourself. If you assert the right to judge others and make rules, you must also take the responsibility to communicate your understanding .NIce to see that the Synthtopia people show an interest in this topic.I like to think that Artists Musicians have a greater inclination to understand the human condition in its many forms and states